A Roegadyn in Equestria

A Roegadyn in Equestria.

Chapter 71: First Days On The Job Are Never Easy. Part 2.

*Point of view: Third person*
*Location: In the kidnapper’s airship*
*Time: Six seventeen at night*

The scene shows a room with a number of ponies holding cutlasses and standing in a half moon circle around a stallion with a flaming skull for his head. His body was clad and black leather and metal spikes along the shoulders and gloves. Also, he had still clutched in his left hand the leg that was attached to a pony that was similar to the rest that were still in the room. Currently facing the now smashed open door, one could see just beyond a short distance away, was Daring Do and Spitfire who were laying unconscious next to one another and on their stomachs.

Apparently, this was Engineer who had undergone a transformation mere moments ago and used one of the oncoming attackers as an oversized club to destroy the door and throw the two Pegasus mare’s from the poisonous air filled room. Speaking of the poison. Now that it was no longer being contained and venting through the now open doorway. The mist was easily dissipating a short distance before it even made it to the two downed girls.

The one that was still being held in his grasp began to move and wildly swung their weapon to try and hit him. But instead, they were thrown into one of the others and essentially knocking them both to the ground with a set of thuds. Although the noise was a little off when that was done. As it did not coincide with two large bodies colliding with one another only a second prior to hitting wood. Instead, it sounded as though there were many small, yet hollow objects bouncing around. In a way, it resembled what would be produced from a xylophone.

A moment later, the mist had dropped low enough that one could just barely make out the floor. This immediately revealed that the two bodies were nothing but a set of black skeletons that were still wearing clothing and now crumpled up in a tangled heap. Arms and legs were either twisting or slipped through sections such as the ribcage.

He held out his left hand and the short sword that he equipped before appeared in its grasp and went under a metamorphosis. This was done as flames erupted from his skeleton hand and coiled along its length. When the flames died down. It revealed it to take on a more demonic form but still retain the overall shape.

Still sticking with the skeleton and silver theme of the handle. The blade itself was giving off a bluish flame from the surface that was really close to how one would see some drinks being served at a bar and being lit a flame just before one would blow it out to drink. His right hand produced the rifle right after, and this too underwent a change. The underside where one was meant to hold onto it underneath with their hand was lined with a silver rib cage. Along the underside of the barrel there was even a blade that ran down the length and only stopped till the tip lined up with the end of the barrel.

His skulled face could be seen going from one weapon to the other as he was clearly giving them a once-over. When he was finished and looked ahead. His eye socket seemingly seemed to move as if he still had an actual face to show his eyes having this expression that just screamed, that he really liked what he saw. As this was going on. There was a sudden sound coming from the pair of skeletons on the floor as they were pulling themselves apart from one another with some difficulty.

This only drew his attention as he moved his gun to point directly at the pair and pulled the trigger without even looking at what he was doing. There was a loud bang, while also being accompanied by a swirling vortex of flames that erupted from the end of the barrel. Oddly enough, it was no simple gunshot, but more of a mixture with a cannon being fired and a lion's roar. Instantly after that was done. The skeletons were blown to pieces and scattered by a white flash. The remains soared in almost all directions, but mostly on that side of the room. Some even pelted the others and caused those to stumble back a few inches.

The floor underneath now had a wide black mark that nearly burned right through. If one was to come in later and saw that mark, then they would have mistaken it for a bonfire literally being made on the ground with how the floorboards were blackened and cracked from the intense flash of heat. All of this happened within the span of four to five seconds. So, the others within the room really did not have much of a chance to react until now, as they all began to charge in and swing their cutlasses in hopes of causing a mortal wound onto Engineer.

The following occurred within the span of a few seconds. The now transformed Engineer would spin towards his left and cut the head off of one of the skeletons and continued with the motion until he got another one. The second one was sliced right through its upper arm and exited on the other side by going through its rib cage and second upper appendage without slowing in the slightest. As for his right side, he began to twirl the gun so that the action lever underneath would come out and snap back into place to reload the next round.

As he was making this motion with the gun, the end with the blade literally went right through the side of one of the other skeleton skulls as easily as a hot knife through butter. Another one got really close as his arms were outstretched and was about to stab him through the front of his own chest with the tip of their curved blade.

However, Engineer had his gun position at an odd angle with his elbow bent and fired the next shot that just barely grazed the side of his head and went flying through his own flames. The bullet continued until it made a direct hit and destroy that skeletons head with a loud boom as flames erupted and coated a significant part of the room in that direction with a thick cloud of black dust.

The final target was coming up from behind and was swinging his cutlass straight down in hopes of splitting his head wide open. Instead, Engineer allowed his back to curve so that he was leaning far enough towards the last attacker. This made it so he was now facing his eyes straight up and to the ceiling. He even turned his head at an angle which would have been impossible for a living being to perform without breaking it. This allowed the oncoming blade's edge to just barely make it into his mouth right as he chomped down with his teeth and caught it in a dead stop. This even produced a few sparks as the metal was forced to grind to a halt along his pearly whites.

The last set of movements he performed, was him kicking off the ground with both legs and going into a flip and wrenching the blade free from the skeleton's grip by breaking a few of the fingers. His body literally soared over and landed behind his target with a loud thud as both boots slammed into the floorboards. However, while he was in mid-air, the transformed Engineer brought both of his weapons into a position so that he would do a crossing motion with them and slashed at the skeleton upon his landing.

When the three seconds were up, his head slowly rotated until it was back in its proper position and the blade within his teeth began to quickly melt until it slipped through his jaw and onto the floor with a sizzle. As he stood there. All that could be heard was a hollowed set of breathing and the embers flowing from his own body. There were even the slight sounds of the leather creaking as he gave off the most subtle body motions while taking another glance around from where he stood once all was said and done.

His empty eyes eventually turned onto the door on the other side of the room and flipped his gun around to reload the next round and shot at the doorknob. The door itself erupted into an explosion of fire and broke into splinters of wood as a result as he prepared for another shot. He then held up the gun so he can look at the side of it and turned it over a few times before he spoke in a demonic voice that droned, while also slightly tilting his head. “I… Like!” He then lowered it and called out in a very intimidating way as he drew out his words. “I know you're in there... I can smell your soul!”

What came out slowly once that was said, was a figure of a mare, as the other side had no lighting. But as soon as she crossed over the threshold and was illuminated by the light being given off from his body. It revealed the same mare that came down from the ship to yell at the couple. He pointed his sword at her and called out the following words while slightly tilting his head down to cause his non-existent eyes to give the impression that he was scowling. “Sinner!”

This apparently only caused her to scoff at his words while slowly sauntering into the room and looking him up and down slowly with her own predatory gaze without even giving the impression of being surprised by his form. She then began to speak as her tone was somewhat curious at first but turned disgusted near the end. “To think that we had another one of us around. I do love the whole leather and burning skull you got going on... if only you weren't a... Male.... Most certainly a new type. Would have remember that mug of yours back home.”

This got her a quick reply from him, as he lightly shrugged his arms and bringing his weapons outwards while doing so. “I don't mind showing you… what I can do… So long as I get to skull fuck you with my burning sword when done. Ha-Ha-Ha!” The way he said it was so serious, along with that small laugh at the end, would have made others run in terror. This Got him an annoyed look from her as she replied. “Be it figurative or literal, I would not allow you to come anywhere near me with such a disgusting tool.”

This got him to tilt his head slightly as he asked the following question. “What happened to that sailor talk?” The mare rolled her eyes after giving out a tired sigh before speaking. “Oh, that was so exhausting to keep up. As for you... if you were a female, I would invite you to join my crew in an instant with your strength. But alas, we can't all have our own way.” As soon as those words left her lips. Her entire body was enveloped by a black growing orb and swirling ripples that started near her midsection and expanded until she was completely gone within.

It then released a strong shockwave that sent Engineer across the room until he slammed into one of the opened boxes and destroyed it with his weight. Although, it seemed as though the wall between their existing room and the one that she was previously within was all but destroyed due to her position during her little trick. When the debris and swirling dark energy was no longer blocking view of where she stood. There was a new creature standing there that was just a handful of inches from hitting their head onto the ceiling.

The Pony form was long gone and replaced with a completely new being of dark. A set of wings protruded from her back. However, unlike the Pegasus, these were bat-like. There was even a long set of curved horns that went out to the sides of her head. The rest of the form was covered in natural dark armor that covered every inch.

Even were there was a gap in said armor for the many joints, was only more of the same sliding right underneath. The smallest of body movements caused an odd noise and creaking that strongly resembled a mixture of metal and ceramic being rubbed onto one another. Even the jaw was lined with teeth and seamlessly formed with the body to produce a mouth with zigzagging edges that would no doubt be able to bite off anything in one go if one were to get too close. She also had in her right hand a long rod with a length of metal to make a blade that was as long as her own arm.

(Play this video for the new form that the mare took on.)

She then began to speak and a warped demonic voice of her own, as she looked around the room, while also lightly playing with her scythe in both hands. “I always did find this ship a little... confining. Would you not agree?” She then threw her head from side to side and was now giving off a manic grin between her teeth as she said the following quite excitedly. “Care to lend me a hand in some light renovations!” This was followed with her pointing the tip of her weapon towards him and sending a strong stream of purple lightning that impacted his form and drew out a ghastly howl of pain from Engineer.

This was also accompanied with him being sent through the ceiling when she rushed up and made an upward swing with her scythe and carving up the floor while doing so. Luckily, he did block the blade from piercing his body by crossing both of his weapons just before she rushed in for the blow. His body was sent up so hard that he literally collided with the ceiling on the next floor up and came crashing down. With himself now laying face down, he rolled over and released a groan of pain while slightly shaking his head. There was then another sound coming from his right that got him to quickly turn his head in that direction.

When he did, he saw what could have been the fin from a shark poking out from the water and it was coming straight for him as the floorboards were being sliced apart and splinters sent everywhere as it rushed towards his head. The only difference was that it was pointing backwards, and it was obviously made of black metal. He quickly rolled out of the way just in time to be given one of the worst types of haircuts that would take way too much off the top.

However, the blade sunk into the ground and reappeared only a second later to come right back at him yet again. He did manage to get out of the way again by jumping high enough that he ended up slamming his skull into the ceiling for a second time. But it was a small price to pay as the blade was dangerously close to making a straight cut up and down where his pelvis was. After getting back to his feet. This continued a number of times. All the while he was using his gun and sword to either deflect or try to destroy his attacker’s tool but only managed to draw a few sparks upon collision with the blades of the sword and gun.

Eventually, the floor was cut up far too much and started to cave in. As a result, Engineer fell and was quickly pinned by several pieces of debris that fell across his midsection and only allowed his right leg and arms to be visible, as his hands attempted to pull off whatever was on top of him. It was also unfortunate, but he also ended up without his weapons as they got knocked away from his hands in the tumble.

As the dust created by the falling rubble subsided. The demon was already standing nearby and had her weapon raised over her head. She then said the following, just before sweeping down and allowing the edge to skewer through the pieces of wood and eventually contacting with his body. “Ah good, good! So much more space to do this!”

She then pulled on the handle that was still in the grip of both of her hands and carefully extracted both it, along with Engineer, who was now stuck on it in the same way a fish would be caught on a hook. By now, his leather clothing already had visible cuts in the fabric and the once roaring hot flames that were meant to consume his head were barely flickering to life. He was upright and his limbs were dangling as she brought him closer so that she could mock him face to face. “Pity... Was ready for so much more on your end. I guess it's to be expected from the weaker gender. The skeletons with the disguising spell were only around level fifteen.”

She then tilted her head and brought her demonic face so that it was on his right side before she whispered the following. “How does it feel to go against a level forty-two demon? Such a pathetic show. If there were only more of you, then you might have had a chance. Didn't anyone tell you that it's not smart to go against a boss rank all by yourself?” Engineer could not really respond as his flames were growing dimmer by the moment. Although, his hands were trying to lift as the creaking of leather could be heard from his fingers lightly flexing. But they eventually fell back down due to a lack of strength after halfway reaching up for the demon’s weapon.

The demon then made a noise that closely resembled sniffing before she spoke up again. “You're different from me, yet almost the same... I think it's your Aether. It... it feels off. It's decayed. Unsure on what else to call it other than... rotten. Oh, and trust me, I know what rotten is. But this, oh this is just, peculiar.” The demon proceeded to lift her weapon over her head with Engineers still on it and plunge the blade to the ground after swinging it hard. This was to ensure that more of it went through his body and anchored him in place as the length of the blade only stopped once it reached the section that connected to the handle.

This was followed with him watching as she went around his form. The demon then lifted one of its legs and firmly placed it onto his turned skull, which was also grinding along the floor thanks to some of the weight that was already being used. The clawed black feet of the female demon was now pivoting in place and causing some grinding sounds to occur by now. Engineers voice started to lose that demonic tone and was halfway to turning into his normal one, while low screams of pain came from his practically stuck open jaw.

There was even the sound of some cracking beginning to occur and the demon was mere seconds away from caving in his head when there was a sudden bang. Following that was the unmistakable sound of a ricocheting bullet. This caused the demon to stop in her current activity to take her foot from his skull, before slowly turning halfway to look over her shoulder to see just what was happening.

Right there, near the edge of the Demons right shoulder and along the back, was a small scratch that was the size of someone's pinky finger. The one who fired it just happened to be Daring Do herself, who is standing on her own shaky legs and still holding onto an outstretched pistol being gripped in both hands. She did not look all that great as her hair was disheveled and some clear sweat could be seen on her brow. She could also be seen breathing heavily, although there was this sharp gaze in her eyes that was trained on the black demon that was standing close to several meters away.

After a few seconds went by, she readied the pistol again and fired the remaining shots that she had loaded up beforehand. With each consecutive bang that was produced. There was a shower of Sparks to indicate that the projectiles were skidding from the surface of the demon’s skin and impacting in different places in the ship. The demon was clearly getting annoyed and was about to move her left leg to fully turn around. But instead, Engineer reached up with the last of his strength and gripped near the ankle, which led to the demon pausing and looking down at him.

He then weakly called out that was just barely loud enough to reach the ears of the Pegasus mare. “R-Run...” The demon gave off a grunt of annoyance before pulling her leg free and kicking his hand away. Her attention was then brought back to Daring Do. After a few seconds, her head could be turning back and forth between the Pegasus and Engineer as she brought her right hands index finger to point towards the mare as she spoke in clear disbelief.

“You… You honestly care for our food?! That right there is a walking, talking, appetizer.” The demons voice then turned to one of pure amusement as it was getting close to outright laughing in a ridiculing tone. “I thought that you kept her around for a late-night snack! You! You're clearly not one of us! Oh well, as much as I would love to play with the two of you longer. I really should get out of here fast with all the commotion of our little playing has caused. First, I'll~.”

The outstretched finger that was pointed at Daring Do before, immediately gave off a purple spark, which rapidly grew into an orb pulsing with electricity that was the size of a basketball. In a way, it strongly resembled one of those gadgets that would be filled with a gas and allows streams of electricity to travel to areas that a person touches on the outside of a glass orb. Engineer recovered just enough strength to raise both of his arms and grip onto the scythe to try and push it off himself. Unfortunately, he had nowhere near the required amount to yank it free from the floorboards on his own.

The orb of lightning was just ready to be let loose when another figure came from the demon’s blind spot and swung down at the outstretched arm with what looked like one of the cutlasses. The figure was thrown back after all their weight was used and repelled by the monster’s hard skin. But as a result of that action, the trajectory was changed just enough that it narrowly hit Daring Do in the head and exploded down the hallway that was behind the Pegasus. Although, with it being such a near miss. Her hair was now standing for a few seconds before the charge faded.

Surprisingly enough, the demon spoke in an exhausted voice rather than one of anger as the arm was lowered and her attention was brought to the new fighter. “I'm quite surprised that you have enough strength to do that much.” This turned out to be Spitfire and she was grasping in one of her hands a weapon that obviously came from the skeletons earlier. Her swollen eye was partially closed, and she was almost down onto her left knee with a plain look of exhaustion now crossing her features.

The mare then said the following as she was having to struggle with both talking and taking in heavy amounts of air as she was clearly overexerting herself. “Buck! And here I wanted to take your arm off... got no clue as to who or what that is down there... but if daring is trying to help... then that's all I need to know.” With those words being said, Spitfire finally crumpled down and dropped the sword which clattered onto the floor loudly.

The demon then gave a feminine shrug before reaching out into empty air with her right hand. All three of them had no idea as to what was going to happen next, but that question was answered when a small black rift appeared in the air and her hand slipped in until it was nearly halfway to her elbow. The arm fidgeted around as if looking for something for a few seconds and when it came out, there was an orange orb that was the size of a Pony's head sitting in the palm of her hand.

The inside was a murky red and orange. However, there was a distinct glow that was reminiscent to that of lava that bathed the room with its light. There was also a weird low hum that came at equal intervals and vaguely gave off the impression of a loud heartbeat. The demon looked it over before she said the following. “Once I'm done with all of you. This port will be quite busy with the ensuing fire this little trinket will cause.”

There was a small pause before she continued after taking a second to examine the item in her hand. “What better way than to erase any evidence, then to have it all burn to the ground. Of course, I will be quite sad that there will be so many delicious ponies that will end up dying before I get to have my fill of their delectable Aether. The ones on board this ship are just shriveled husks anyway. Eh, could always ask for more when I get back.”

This was followed with one of those stereotypical maniacal laughs that a villain would give right after giving a monologue of their plans. Her gaze turned towards Daring Do as the orb was placed back into where it came from. A moment later a slurping sound could be heard as the creature started to move from Engineer and flapped its wings once to give it a strong push to close the distance and grab on to Daring Do by the neck with its right arm.

As the Pegasus was attempting to claw at the arm to break the hold. Along with using the handle of her pistol as a blunt weapon. The demon continued. “But who's to say I don't have enough time to savor just one more soul before the entire feast is thrown away?” That was when Daring Do began to release a pained grunt as her body was beginning to give off a light glow, which turned into a bluish white mist and float into the air by several inches. Once this was done, the demon emitted another set of sounds to indicate that it was taking in a deep breath before letting out an appreciative sigh of delight as it spoke again.

“The other one I was draining bit by bit so that she could still be alive in case she was needed. But you, oh you! I'm taking everything all at once! Might just put on an extra pound or two, but I can easily slim it down.” Daring Do's right eye was closed tight as the other was just barely halfway opened by this point, as she was gasping for some much-needed air. Eventually, her eye was slowly beginning to roll back from the asphyxiation just as her hands were moving slower and slower until they rested down at her sides.

(Play this music here for the emotional effect.)

The next thing to happen, was a large amount of sound that came from chains rattling. The source immediately came into view as a link of fiery silver medal links went around the demon’s arm once and continued straight ahead without even touching the blackened hard skin. As soon as nearly several meters of it was going past the arm itself, did the chain go taught and grip on to the demon. This was immediately followed with the chain being pulled in the direction that it came from with a strong jerk. The end result was it acting as a chainsaw as it instantly burned its way through the natural defense and elicited a large number of sparks in doing so.

It only lasted for a few seconds, but pieces of flesh could be seen burning away until the underlining bones were exposed, and even that too was sawed off by the time the last of it passed. The arm that was still wrapped around her neck finally released itself just as Daring Do fell to the floor and immediately ripped it off to breathe once again and look to what was happening. From her perspective, the hulking figure was letting out a ghastly howl of pain. While at the same time, gripping on to the still glowing red hot stump that was just past the elbow.

But before the monster could do anything in response to the loss of her arm. A glowing whip of metal came soaring over Daring Do’s head and struck the front of the demon and sent it flying backwards with a loud thwack only a second before there was an equally loud crash on the far side of the room. The entire area was now brightly lit to where Daring Do Believe that the weird orb from earlier was taken out again, but she was wrong upon finding the source. Both she and Spitfire were now looking wide-eyed at the now standing stallion with a burning skull who was erupting with a level of heat that dwarfed his previously displayed ones from earlier.

The skull itself was enveloped and a raging storm of fire that could have come from a furnace going at full force with the way it was gushing through the neckline of the jacket. The numerous cuts and small rips in his clothing were also releasing the inner flames in small jets now and then. It could not be seen before. But now, there was a flowing tail of pure orange and red that gave the same impression of one's own tail standing on end and ready to whip at the first sign of aggression. There could also be seen some flickers of green on the tip.

The hard wooden floor below his legs was slowly blackening from being burned from the heat being given off until it was more than several inches away in all directions. Gripped in his right hand was the chain from earlier. After wrapping around a few times along the arm’s length and continuing from how he was holding it. The item was laying near and ready to be put to use once again. He then said the following in a voice that was quickly changing between normal and a demonic one with a deep voice, while pointing at the demon with his free hand. “DoN't ToUch… HER! We're not FINISHED!!!”

In response, the demon broke free from some of the pieces that landed on her after getting tossed thanks to being struck with a chain. She then pointed her left arm towards Engineer and immediately summoned an orb of lightning and shot it without any warning by forgoing a lengthy charge up time. But not before screaming the following. “YOU CUT MY ARM OFF!!!” Engineers swung his chain upwards at the last moment and sliced right through the orb and ended up dissipating the lightning harmlessly into the air as most of the charge went into the chain that was still in motion.

Said chain was already on course for the demon as it landed a direct hit to the midsection and completed the circuit to send the residual energy right back. Not only was the demon hit with another whip from his weapon but was also struck with her own spell as she was sent flying for a second time to the corner.

This got another pain yell before crashing into another set of debris and getting half buried. However, she wasn't under there for more than two seconds before everything was thrown off after getting back up again. This was quickly followed with a loud roar of anger as she took on a stance. She was slightly hunched over and with her legs spread and one good arm being pulled in near her side.

The air was filled with numerous crackling noises as a multitude of orbs began to appear and float around her body until there was at least over a dozen of them and holding position. These were then launched at all directions in a cone to blanket the fighting area. Not only was Engineer the target, but also Daring Do and Spitfire, who were caught in the crosshairs of a few of the orbs. But just as this was happening. Engineer was already in the motion of swinging his chain towards the ground and sending it into the floorboards. This act caused it to move on its own in the same way as a snake would when diving into a hole.

At what seemed to have been at impossible speeds. The entire area was immediately covered with spider webbing of burning chains that would go out of the floorboards and into the ceiling. Which would then come right back down again to continue the process. As a result, there were too many obstacles for the orbs to get to their intended targets and collided with the makeshift barricades and started the process of electrocuting the lines.

As the surge of electrical energy was bathing the room in a shade of dark purple. It was easy to track where the energy was flowing. So, when it got to traveling all the way back to Engineer. One could easily see it stopping only a few inches away from his hand that was still gripping on to the chain. Apparently, he was giving off so much heat and distorting the air around himself to such a degree that the energy was unable to overpower it and could not come close to even make contact with his form.

Now, when it came to the demon. She was not so lucky, as the chains were wrapping around her form as they were passing from the floor and up to the ceiling continuously. Her neck, one horn, good arm, legs and even her wings were hopelessly coiled in metal bindings. This forced her to stand in place with this shocked expression in her eyes as she watched in real time when her own magic spell was traveling right towards her and eventually into her own body. The air was filled with the unmistakable sound of buzzing of power and crackling of lightning.

This elicited a two-tone scream that obviously came from different sources, as the demons body convulsed erratically to the point that the amount of strength being used to pull it the chains was causing them to even dig into her flesh. After several seconds of this going on, did the demons body finally stopped with its uncontrolled movements and slump in its current captive state. Aside from the mixture of static saturating the air now and then, and the sizzle of the chain still slowly burning away. There was almost a near constant whaling of moans of discomfort from the demon as its head was now hanging from its body.

Engineer then said the following as it resonated heavily, while turning his wrist a couple of times to show that he was making the chain tighter as it was traveling into the floorboards. The Airship made some creaking sounds as the chains shifted until there was a loud grunt from the demon on the other end as the limbs were pulled tight to where they were close to resembling what a person would look like on a stretch rack. “YOU… ARE… GUILTY!!!”

And with that, his right arm with the chain was pulled back. This had the effect of copying what was done when removing the demon’s arm. But instead, all of her limbs, including her head, were sawed off simultaneously within seconds. The demons mouth opened wide to bear all of its sharp teeth as it wailed in agony for a split second when this was done. All the while, his weapon came completely undone from the ship and went to coiling around his form so that it was set in place to go over his chest by the time the last of the pieces even touch the ground.

Engineer by then, was giving out a couple of menacing growls before the tense flames erupting from his body ceased. In fact, it all died down to where there was barely even a flicker of Ember that would travel more than halfway up his head as his body fell to its knees and his back arching so that he was forced to look straight up. The fiery tail from before was completely gone now. Over the course of a few seconds, the transformation reverted as black smoke enveloped his body before it blew away to reveal Engineer in his Pony form once again.

He then said the following in a voice that was filled with mounting pain. Gah.. Dang! My head… Did anyone get the name of that vertibird that crashed on top of me? Because everything hurts so fucking much...” On Daring Do’s part, she was bringing herself up after being stuck on her hands and knees for a portion of that fight near the end and slowly made her way over to Engineer that was not making any further motions after giving that statement.

By now, she was standing in front of him as his eyes were locked on her with this sleepy expression. As for her, she had a stern one on her as she glared down at him. She then said, “You and I are going to need to have ourselves a sit down when this is all done!” There was a slight pause before she continued as her tone became angry as she started to yell.

“And this… is for scaring me half to death! You bucking jerk!” That sentence was immediately followed with her rearing her right arm up and sending it straight down so that it connected to the side of his face and caused him to fall to the ground with a thud and to also have a dazed expression on his face.

Right now, Engineers eyes were spinning as he was holding a hand to his now bruised cheek and looking up at Daring Do with a great amount of confusion showing. Upon seeing this. The Pegasus continued while having one hand on her hip and the other pointing at him in an accusing gesture. “Now listen here! I can overlook the whole Undead Pony and being on fire bit! But there is no way in Tartarus that I'm going to let you die on my watch! You hear me?!”

After hearing that, Engineer dumbfoundedly replied as his eyes were looking between Daring Do and Spitfire, who was watching from a distance and looking almost as confused as he was with the Pegasus’s reaction. “Uh… Well, it's nice and all to see you have your priorities in line... But was punching me really somethin’ I needed?”

This got Daring Do to blink a few times as her eyes started to slowly get wider between each one. She even straightened up and took the hand that she was pointing with to scratch the back of her head as she was looking away with clear embarrassment plastered on her face. Daring Do even started to purse her lips and do that thing where she knew she did something she should not have.

She was obviously going to try and come up with some type of excuse when Spitfire called out after getting up again. “Wow... I always knew you had a thing for the exotic types with going out of the country, but I think you may have gone a little overboard in picking your stallion! Hahaha!” Upon hearing that. Daring Do’s face became flush with a pink tint before it quickly grew red as a tomato. There was also a string of nonsensical words and stuttering as she angrily looked towards Spitfire and pointed between herself and Engineer a couple of times before she finally choked out the following words that clearly were not very convincing.

“You t-think that he, and I? Really? I-I! But he's just, and I'm just! You-you really have no idea what's going on here… So-So just shut your mouth! It's nothing like that okay!” Engineer was just laying on his tail while looking at the two and noticing the way Daring Do was getting all embarrassed as Spitfire had this mischievous grin that just yelled out that she found something fun to mess with and was not going to stop anytime soon.

The fooling around between the two mare's was broken when a loud growling sound emanated out of nowhere and caused the pair to get into a defensive stance in preparation for another fight. Spitfire grabbed onto a piece of wood that was just a little longer than the average sword, as Daring Do went on to unsheathe her survival knife and held it in a reverse grip. The tip of it was pointed straight ahead as her free hand was pressing on the bottom of the handle. This was just in case she needed an extra bit of strength to send it into her would-be assailant.

They obviously did not see anything with the way their heads were turning from left to right to scan the room for any new hostile threats. Once the pair gazed around for at least the third time. They both had their backs towards one another and got closer so that they now had engineer between the two of them as he was laying on the floor. The stallion himself was doing the same, but also glancing at the mare’s in confusion. When the loud growling came for the fourth time. It was easily twice as strong as before and this caused Daring Do and Spitfire to tense up further.

This caused them to bend their knees slightly so that they were in a ready stance. Their eyes sharpened along with their muscles tensing up for that split moment that they would need to react. Daring Do called over her shoulder without looking away from the area in front of herself with an edge to her voice. “I got nothing!”

This got an equally stressed reply from Spitfire as she said, “I don't see it, but it sounds to be right on top of us!” The next one to speak up was Engineer, as he spoke in a very drawn out and almost melodramatic wine, while still sitting on the floor between the two girls that pretty much had their tails almost pressing against the sides of his head by now.

“Everything hurts and I'm so damn hungry!” This was immediately followed with the same growling noise that they have been hearing for a while now. This caused both girls to sharply turn their heads towards Engineer while also flicking one of their ears. Spitfire had a mix of bewilderment and surprise going on. But when it came to Daring Do, she just released an exhausted sigh before letting go of the handles tip and using that hand to slap herself in the face. The Adventurous mare then ran her hand down her face before she said the next bit with a bit of irritation in her tone while also somehow sounding relieved.

“Sheesh! You can't be that bad if you're able to make jokes like that. So how are you feeling?” That question just got a tired and very drawn-out groan of pain from the stallion as he attempted to lift one of his hands, but to only drop it after gaining a few inches off the ground. “Every bone in my body feels as though it's about to break... You know that feeling you get when your leg falls asleep, and you get those pins and needles that make it impossible to do anything for a while kind of feeling?”

After getting a reluctant nod from Daring Do. Engineer continued in the same pathetic voice as earlier. “Every part of me has that right now... and I mean every part, it's just horrible! I could even feel it on my eyebrows and it's weird. I could also feel it in my lips! Someone please, make it STOP! I’d rather be knocked out than go through this for another second!”

This cause Spitfire to immediately try to cover her mouth after dropping the piece of wood. This was so that she could cover up a loud laugh. After nearly a minute of this going on and the blue jumpsuit wearing Pegasus having to steady herself with both hands clutching at her knees for support, otherwise she would end up slouching all the way over and falling to the floor. The mare finally began to release some intelligible sentences as a few tears were streaming down her face. “Haha-hehe! And here I thought he might have been some sort of monster! Oh, it hurts, it hurts my sides, but I really needed that! You really know how to pick them Daring!”

This got a mock laugh from Daring Do in the direction of Spitfire before she reached down to grab on to Engineers left arm to try and pull him back onto his legs. The act elicited a hiss of pain from the stallion, and this caused Daring Do’s previous face towards her friend to turn somewhat concerned before being a little gentler with the motion.

Having caught this, Spitfire gave the pair a quick smirk before lending her assistance. By the time Engineer was on his legs again. His arms were draped over the shoulders of both the mare's. The trio were walking slowly up a mound of debris that formed a makeshift ramp that led to a large enough hole for them to exit above and get right onto the deck of the ship.

They had not even gotten halfway up, and the group nearly stumbled when one of them stepped onto some loose debris. Engineer released another grumble from his stomach that caused Spitfire to chuckle before letting out a joke. “I heard a burning through a lot of calories, but this is just going too far! Daring, aren't you feeding him enough?” The young Pegasus’s head started to hang a little low right as her cheeks were beginning to flush after hearing this and Spitfire took this as a queue to push the mare's buttons a little more.

“I kind of feel sorry for you buddy. Daring hasn't really been all that great at cooking. So, you must be stuck eating out all the time. What do you say we get out of here and I cook you up something good at my place?” She then said the next part with a sultry tone, while also giving a playful wink to the stallion and intentionally pressing her body suit clad body a little more firmly into him. “After all that, I'll personally give you a very special dessert.” Daring Do's head immediately shot up as she gave Spitfire a death glare that said that she needed to stop now, or pain would come very… very soon.

She then tried to yell in the beginning, but her voice dropped nearly halfway through to show that her confidence was wavering. “Hey! I'll have you know I... I... I can cook now you know.” The other mare rolled her eyes before playfully jabbing back. “Oh really now? You finally stepped it up above opening one of those premade energy bars and roasting it over a flame for a few seconds to warm it up? You know, I'd be really surprised if you could even boil water without burning down the kitchen your in.”

Daring Do's teeth could be visibly seen as she was beginning to grind them, while also attempting to keep a disarming smile as she spoke through them. “That was just one time, and it was only a small fire.” Spitfire raised an eyebrow to that before her cheerful expression turned a bit more serious as she replied. “That was no small fire. You’re the very reason I had to move into that apartment building now, remember?” By this point the two ended up forgetting about Engineer and were practically pressing their foreheads into one another for a stare down.

Whether it was fortunate or unfortunate for the stallion depending on how it was seen. His face was literally being pressed from both sides by one with a white tank top shirt and other being a skintight blue jumpsuit. However, it started to become a small problem with him being able to breathe thanks to the twins sets of pillows underneath both fabrics almost blocking his ability to take in any oxygen. This lasted for several seconds until there was a muffled yell coming from Engineer and the two pulled away enough to reveal his panting face that was gasping for much needed air.

Spitfire was smirking up a storm on the left side of him, while Daring Do was looking both embarrassed and furious at what just happened. They were just about to go into another argument with the stallion stuck in between thanks to his current condition, when a pulsing black orb shot past them and headed right for the exit of the ship that was less than three meters away by now. Daring Do's eyes shot wide and sent a glare over towards the entrance. Spitfire apparently picked up on that and the pair more than tripled their efforts to getting outside in a hurry.

When the three of them got up on deck. The two mare’s were searching high and low from where they stood as their heads were turning to take in everything around. Engineer used his head to point to the bow of the ship and quickly said, “Go over there! I think I know where it's heading!” Not wanting to waste any time with questions. All three were instantly at the edge of the ship and they caught the sight of the weird orb giving off some random bursts of light as it sailed down the pier. It then entered a smaller ship that was maybe six meters long at the very end of the line of docked ships.

Thanks to it being later in the evening. All the lamps were on and gave a good view of what was happening on that small ship from where they stood. The stairway leading to the bottom deck was now giving off a strong surge of purple light that lasted a couple of seconds before going dim. This was immediately followed with the demon from before coming out after first having some trouble with squeezing its frame onto the deck. It was even followed by a pair of the same type of black skeletons as earlier.

All three of the ponies on the larger ship expected another fight to occur, but were surprised when the two skeletons and Demon hurriedly prepared the ship for a hasty take-off. Daring Do scrunched up her brow as she confusedly asked the following question. “Does anyone understand why they're even running? Our heavy hitter is nothing but a mannequin at this point. Oh, uh, no offense!” To that, Engineer just bobbed his head a little and gave a weird smirk and a sound to indicate that he did not take it personally before Spitfire added her own thoughts.

“Yeah, she has a point there. I think this monster is a body snatcher. It could have just taken one of the ones that were still on the ship and came after us again.” There was only a few seconds before a look of realization came across the captain's face before she added the next bit. “She might be running on fumes. That could explain why she's on the run! Come on, let’s get ‘em before it's too late!” Clearly taking the hint. Both Pegasus release their hold and were about to take flight. But they were stopped as Engineer managed to reach out and grab on to their clothing near the lower back area.

This got a pair of feminine screams as they almost fell back from this and shot him a, are you kidding me look. Before wrenching themselves free from his hands. Seeing what was about to happen. Engineer quickly spoke up as he was now leaning onto the railing and trying to keep on his own two legs that were heavily shaking.

“I think we’re in the perfect seating for a good show.” Daring Do replied to that while pointing at the smaller ship that was already a dozen meters away from the edge of the pier and going out into the open air. A good show? If we don’t hurry, then they’re gonna get away! That’s one of the faster flying vessels out here. Once it picks up speed, we won’t be able to catch up in time with how worn out we are.” He also looked over to Daring Do and said the next bit while giving a devilish smile. “Remember when I said I was setting up a distraction?”

Going back to a couple of minutes prior to now and on the smaller ship. The orb of light flew right in through a small open port window for the doorway heading inside and entered another standing box after phasing through the wooden cover. It did not even take a moment before there was a glow seeping through the cracks before the lid was roughly pushed off as the body inside fell onto its knees.

This turned out to be a previously unseen Unicorn mare. But her flesh could be seen in patches along her face thanks to some missing fur. Her left eye was sunken in to where one could not even see the orb thanks to being replaced with an empty darkness with just a single purple orb pulsing in the center. Said pulses were in rhythm with an audible beat. One that was reminiscent to hearing a person’s beating heart for a moment or two.

Both the fur on her face and the small amount of mane that could be seen were both brown. The horn had some jagged pieces to show that it was partially cracked. The clothing itself was that of a red set of robes that obviously needed cleaning thanks to the large brown spots in random places along the fabric.

There was one spot in particular that was bigger than the rest. It was near the stomach area that also had a ripped section reminiscent of what would happen if someone were to be stabbed. The Unicorn attempted to speak at first, but all that came out was a few gurgles before some black ooze was coughed up onto the floor with a splatter.

There was some hollow wheezing before she finally got her voice. “BUCK! Barely enough strength to make this thing move! N-Need to report this!” She then turned her attention to another set of boxes that were partially leaning against the wall at an angle and began to scream. “Stop being lazy and get this ship moving!” A second later the lids were pushed off and to the side and clattered to the ground to reveal a set of skeletons with their arms outstretched to show that they were the ones responsible for the lids coming off.

The Unicorn stumbled as soon as she got to her legs and grunted a few times. As soon as that was done, she was enveloped in the same cloud of darkness that took on the shape of an orb until it grew large enough and dissipated to show her demonic body. There was a low growl as she lumbered towards the exit that would lead above as she spoke up again in clear irritation. “This body's too damaged to function properly! No choice but to expend more of my energy for my true form... At least until I can get one that’s fresh.”

However, just right outside of the door, was a set of fishing line that was running low to the ground and in the path of the outwardly swinging exit. If one were able to follow where it led, then they would have seen how it zigzagged all over the ship. Not only was it partially blocking the way down below, but it was also tethered to one of the handles that would be steering the ship. Part of it even included the small gap in the railing just a couple of inches from the ground where the gangplank would lead on and off the ship.

As soon as the demon got out and caused the wire to break by opening the door. The line pulled tightly by a couple of inches before somewhere along the length it broke. At the very end of it all was a single egg timer and it started to make some very low ticking sounds. This was being obscured by the footsteps being made by the Demon and her skeleton assistants as they came onto the deck.

Said egg timer was also connected to a large volume of cylinders and glass bottles that contained a substantial amount of black powder. Many of them were situated near the center of the deck and right behind the steering column where it would not easily be seen in the dark. There were also more vials placed nearby in other nooks and crannies. Once the ship got moving the creature looked over to the larger ship that it was previously on and caught sight of the three it was fighting on top.

She then gave off a light chuckle as a snarl soon grew on those fanged teeth of hers as she began to talk to herself. “If I had just a little more energy... Then it would have been child's play to take one of the other crew members and finish those three off... Maybe I'll be forgiven if I can deliver some useful Intel on this new arrival. The captain should not have any strength to give chase. I could probably still take on that other Pegasus if she tries to fly over.”

That was when she had a devilish idea and reached into a familiar rift in the air. She then pulled out the glowing orange and red orb. This was followed by a series of maniacal laughter as she pulled her arm back in preparation to throw the object as she called out in hopes of the others being able to hear her banter. “I must apologize for leaving so soon, but here's a parting gift!” She intended to hurl it deep into the docks so that it would not only destroy some ships. But to also cause a substantial amount of damage to both the nearby ships and the structure of the docks.

By that point, the egg timer was already counting down to the last of its seconds. In fact, it had just clicked so that it indicated that five seconds remained. The Demon’s arm was in the middle of throwing back when it hit four. She was taking aim when it hit three. Legs were braced for the best leverage when it hit two. One last laugh was given when it hit the final second. And just when she was already halfway through with swinging her arm to let go, did the bombs finally go off. There was a set of blinding flashes and multiple strong concussive pulses emitted from each explosion that was practically under her feet in eliciting a demonic scream of fright.

As a result, the skeletons that were acting as crew members were either torn to bits as sections of their bodies were forced apart or thrown against some other object such as a railing or the mast on the small ship. The Demon lost her grip on the weapon as it slipped from her grasp. The surface of the item instantly showed hairline cracks that spider webbed all over before what was contained within was released. Her eyes were even going as wide as possible upon witnessing the event occur in slow motion. As everything was engulfed in a fiery explosion at point blank that emanated from the now ruptured item.

It took less than a split second, but everything caught up and its seemingly ever-expanding blast radius, was not only torn apart. But also instantly vaporized before it was even fully engulfed in the bright light. The Demon burned to nothing as a purple light attempted to flee from its disintegrating form. Unfortunately, that was ultimately destroyed as it was not fast enough to escape.

The blast grew until it was practically big enough to form a perfect sphere to contain nearly a dozen of the same size of ships within. This however, produced a powerful shockwave that caused many of the other ships nearby that were still anchored to rock violently. As this was happening, the port was shaken to wear a few of the bystanders needed to grab onto something or risk falling off the sides of their own vessels or the edge of the walkways.

Back over with Engineer, Daring Do and Spitfire. They were just standing with their bodies grabbing on to the railing as they watched the ensuing destruction in progress. The entire incident from the flashpoint and the loud boom that followed, until everything stopped rocking lasted for nearly ten seconds. At which time, all three were just looking at where the ship once was with eyes wide open and mouths hanging so low that they may as well have been completely unhinged. Engineer was standing in the middle as the two Pegasus mare’s slowly move their eyes so that they were looking straight at him with unchanged expressions of shock.

Upon noticing this. Engineer began to change his own expression to that of embarrassment as he gave them a slight wince and a smile before he spoke. “I... hehehe... I may have messed up on the measurements... just a tad bit.” Daring Do was at a complete loss of words as Spitfire spoke up. “Well... when you said that was a distraction, then I think that was more than effective.”

Daring Do's face then morph to that of horror for a few seconds before she grabbed on to his shirt collar and started to shake him violently as she started to talk in a dangerous tone. “I was walking around with a walking BOMB for the last half an hour through the city?! Are you bucking crazy! What would you have done if that went off in the hotel room!”

Spitfire blinked a few times before she had this sultry look about her before she made a pointing gesture between the other two as she spoke. “Hmm. And what's this about a hotel? Oh Daring, you're really starting to live up to your name now, aren't you? The Pegasus in question released Engineer and allowed him to plop onto the floor before she ran both of her hands down her face to reply to Spitfires implied accusation. “It’s not like that at all! We were doing some preparation work to rescue you.” This got Daring Do a not-so-convinced hum from the mare before she continued and gestured towards Engineer at the same time.

“Hey, you're not a stranger in this! Come on! Back me up on this. We got nothing going on, right? Hey, ignoring me is not helping! Engineer! For Celestia's sake! Don’t tell me that mouth finally picked now to shut up when I need it!” It took a few more seconds before the two realized that the stallion was not moving, and they became immediately worried and started to check up on him.

It did not take long before they discovered that he was snoring like a log and unresponsive to anything they attempted to try to wake him up with. That was when they heard the royal guard approaching in the distance and this caused daring due to panic as she looked to where the sound was emanating from and back down to the passed out Engineer.

Catching on to what might have been going through her friend's mind. Spitfire gave them the go-ahead to get out of there with her staying behind to fill in the guards on what was transpiring. However, she did tell her friend that she wasn't going to say a thing about the stallion’s transformation and that the two of them would meet up later at her apartment. And with that, Daring Do grabbed on to Engineer and glided off the other side of the large ship so that they were not in view of the oncoming guards that were both on hoof and in the air.

Fortunately enough, there was not all that much damage inflicted on the pier and all of the docked ships from the explosion. Well, aside from some rattled crew members who were caught unawares and could not grab on to anything to prevent some minor injuries from occurring in time.

Much to her word, the captain of the Wonderbolts gave a detailed record when it came to her abduction. Now, when it came to how she was rescued. The mare stated how a pair of adventurers came on board and fought a monster who was capable of stealing bodies and controlled skeletons as minions.

After a close battle, the monster tried to flee on another smaller vessel and was caught up in the bright explosion that could clearly be seen from halfway across the city. A few hours past as the rest of the crew members that were detained thanks to the efforts of the two that came to rescue her, were taken into custody and immediately found evidence that they were all members of the rumored Herd Cult. Honestly, it did not really help that they all carried either on their possession or tucked away in their cabins a set of red robes that were known to be used by the fanatical group.

Even more questions were asked to the neighboring vessels about the suspicious ship. In the end it was discovered that it was docked for nearly two weeks. And strangely enough, it was the only one that did not get regular inspections by the officers stationed to oversee permits for how long they can stay in one place before needing to move on.

This eventually led to finding those very same officers. Thanks to a reasonable suspicion the Royal Guards searched their office that was situated near the front of the dock. It did not take much effort at all to come across a large number of bits and expensive artifacts being kept in a hidden trunk that was underneath some loose floorboards.

It was nearly ten-thirty at night by the time Spitfire got back to her apartment by flying into it through the balcony. Even though she had been held captive for a few days and assisted in the new investigation that took place at the pier. Spitfire did not look too worse for wear after she took a few steps in. But as soon as she came even dangerously close to the couch, did she go right for the end and tossed herself high enough that her entire body was now plopping across all of the cushions. This produced a loud poof sound emanating throughout the living room. This was also accompanied by a long groan of relief as her face was pressed into one of the pillows.

Her right wing was draped over the top of the couch as the other one was drooping on to the floor. The mare was just about to pass out for a well-deserved night of sleep when the excited voice of her mother came out from the nearby kitchen. “Oh my! My Firefly is back home! This got a pathetic grunt from Spitfire as she lazily picked up one of her hands to do a dismissive gesture as she was trying to speak through the pillow covering her face. “Mom... I'm not a little filly anymore, so… please stop calling me that already.”

She hardly even had enough time to finish that sentence before she was plucked off of the couch and given one of the biggest bear hugs she could possibly get from a happily crying mother. It would have been seen as a heartfelt moment for the two if it were not for the simple reason of Spitfire now feeling her internal organs being crushed into paste.

Stormy Flare was almost crying out-right out of pure joy, whereas Spitfire was now shedding a teardrop from her right eye from nothing but excruciating pain as her upper half was literally creaking from within her bones due to the amount of strength the older mare was exerting. She then wheezed out the following as she was trying to prevent her back from being crushed. “If you really love me... let me, GO! I-I need… to breathe!”

Of course, she was eventually allowed to breathe again, but not after suffering for a few more moments. After which, Daring Do came out from the short hallway and into the living room to find the mother and daughter together. The mare then pointed over her shoulder in the direction that she just came from and stated that engineer was out cold and sleeping on the guest bed.

According to the mare, they had not even made it halfway back before he could no longer stay awake. However, they stuck to the rooftops and glided every so often. So, it didn't put too much of a strain on Daring Do to get into the apartment building after gliding down from the structure just across the street and into the open balcony window.

But what was really concerning was the fact that Engineers body temperature was low on arrival, and it was stormy flare who suggested that he rest in the spare bedroom and be put under the covers. This at one point or another led to the topic of having a late dinner. Daring Do was all for relaxing on the couch next to Spitfire to catch up until the food was ready. But that idea was thrown out the window when she caught what her friend said next, while heading over to the kitchen along with her mother and quickly putting on an apron with the Wonderbolts logo printed on it.

“Think i'll give you a hand in there Mom!” Stormy Flare desperately tried in vain to get her to reconsider but the captain was extremely adamant about doing this. In the end, her mother just gave up and allowed her to do what she wanted. She even continued with, “How often do I get to show off my cooking skills to a stallion?” Daring Do, who was sitting on the couch by then. Had this slight look of panic has she glanced between the kitchen and the hallway several times along with also showing beads of sweat on her face.

She then reached up with one of her hands towards the kitchen and gave off a light chuckle before saying the next part in an unsure tone. “Uh, maybe I could also-.” However, her words were stopped right in their tracks as both mother and daughter stuck their heads out of the kitchen and yelled at nearly the top of their voices in perfect unison while giving Daring Do a very cold stare down.

“NO! You're still banned from the kitchen!” But what really shot fear into Daring Do, was what stormy Flair said next while also gesturing with two of her fingers towards her own eyes before pointing them at the mare. “I see you so much as place one hoof on this floor and I will break out the photo album little missy! And yes, I did bring it with me. And I always have it ready.”

The threat of showing her past self was enough to make Daring Do stay seated with her arms straight down and looking off in the distance with a horrified expression that just screamed that it would have been the end of the world for her. She then said the following under her breath as her eyes quickly looked over to the hallway for a brief moment. “For the love of Celestia. Please don't let him see THAT yearbook picture...”

*Point of view: Third Person*
*Location: Canterlot*

Meanwhile, add another location. Alone figure dressed in some white and gold trimmed armor was by herself and walking the streets of Canterlot. This turned out to be one of the Royal Guards and they were equipped with a small buckle shield and a short sword, which was a part of the basic equipment issued to the soldiers. No wings or horn could be visible to show that this was an Earth pony mare. She had just turned off a seemingly busy road that was where the residential district would meet with the shops.

This turned into a small alley that ran clean through and on to another busy street that was nearly a block away. She had not even gone a third of the distance before stopping at a door that would have been difficult to see unless one was to be standing right in front of it due to the tall stacks of boxes on either side. To anyone who would be standing at either end of the alley. It would have just appeared to be a rather tall stack of garbage and disregarded any notion of there being an entrance anywhere down in there.

The guard knocked on the door with a subtle rhythm once she was at it. But only after checking to see if there was anyone else there. The door itself was painted in a way that it had a camouflaging effect as to blend it in to the brick wall around the frame. It even had a sliding shutter about a quarter of the way up to allow someone to look through and communicate beyond the door while still being closed. Said shutter immediately opened and a set of blue eyes could be seen on the other side. The voice of another female came out rather rough as she pointedly asked who was there with a snarky attitude. “Wha'cha want?!”

The guard then leaned in to whisper the following. “Here to give my report on the dock situation. The eyes from the door quickly shifted from left to right for a few times before it was abruptly shut with a loud click at the end to signify it was locked. There was also another set of sliding sounds as something large was being removed from barring entrance just a few seconds prior to it being swung open. The one on the other side was wearing a set of red robes and the hood was pulled up and only allowing the eyes to be seen thanks to the shadow it was casting.

As soon as the guard entered, and the door was closed. The two started to go down a short hallway with pieces of wallpaper barely holding on as patches could be seen of the wall it was originally attached on. There was only a single door at the other end, and that looked so weathered, that one might have thought that it was exposed to the elements for many years. Even the brass door handle could barely be seen with any of its usual shine thanks to the amount of dirt and rust coating the metallic surface.

The one in robes went in first after opening a door and stood off to the side to allow the guard to come in. Once the second door was closed, the room went completely black for several long seconds before a single light shine down and onto a simple metal foldout chair all by itself. Thanks to the way the lighting was used. It made it nearly impossible to see anything else aside from a few paces of empty space away from the chair. After noticing this. The guard immediately went over to it and sat down while staring straight ahead with a stoic expression.

What happened next was a lengthy conversation between the mare in armor and a number of voices that would come from the dark. Even though they would come out at different directions. They all sounded so similar that it may as well have come from the same female. The only key difference was the slight shift when it came to how they spoke.

“State your number!”

“I am number one five eight six.

“Please inform us all as to what division you are under.”

“I am a member of both the intelligence section and currently posted in the eighteenth squad of the day guard.”

“Tch! Forget the dang formalities and just hurry up and get to tellin' us what yea know!”

“Efforts in both retrieving leaked information, as well as a possible recruitment candidate has failed. Furthermore, it would appear that one of the elite officers has been defeated.”

“Oh, my word! The poor thing... I really did like her attitude, but I suppose fretting over every little setback would not be very becoming.”

“Who was this possible recruitment candidate?”

“It was a Pegasus mare by the name of Spitfire. From second account of those who got taken into custody. She is the captain of the Wonderbolts. While in the middle of tracking down the leak, she was taken into custody after stumbling into the middle of an operation on a target site. The officer in charge said that she was, and I quote. A good catch.”

“Hmm... Hmmm...”

“I see. this is quite troublesome. Would it be accurate to speculate the same suspects are involved in causing this hindrance for us?”

“I'm afraid not. The remaining crew members aboard the ship have almost no recollection of even catching sight of the ones who were involved. Meaning we have no Intel that would be useful in tracking down the suspect.”

“For crying out loud! All that wasted effort! It took so much shifting of the paperwork to have our operatives to be the ones that would go to that apartment and put on that little song and dance to keep any eyes off of our backs.”

“Now now! Please try to hold your temper. At the very least we now have reason to believe that a new piece has been added to this little chess board.”

“GERRR! Just what BUCKING good is that going to do for us?! Every time we come up with a new venture this happens! And it’s been going on almost every BUCKING time”

“I suppose that would be true. Too bad that we lost our eyes and ears in Ponyville. The Elements of Harmony and those other two need to be kept under constant surveillance.”

“Oh, that is so very true. That man really must do read the room as they say. Whether it be directly or indirectly, it is quite rude to continuously cause us this much distress.”

“I do concur. It would have been most prudent to contain those emotions, rather than to blatantly attack a male in public in such a way. Reasoning would dictate to cover our tracks. Perhaps the wrong one was assigned to this task. I propose that we do a restructuring on what task is dictated to whom.”

“Please, I think we have gotten far off topic. Now, do tell us anything you can. Any detail, no matter how minor it may seem will be most helpful.”

“I understand. The larger ship suffered substantial damage which range from the holding area and the sections right above. From the few crew members that were barely awake at the time. They remember hearing a number of loud sounds that were similar to cannon fire. The Unicorns even sensed a large buildup of lightning magic that was coursing throughout the ship near the end of the exchange. I got a first-hand look and found multiple holes in the area that was most likely the main fighting zone on both the floor and roof. Not to mention some random burns spots.”

“Burn spots you say? Interesting, very interesting. I already have one suspect in mind.”

“Must I waste precious oxygen by reminding you all that the most obvious suspect is not anywhere near here at this present time?”

“Then would it be possible that we have missed another one of ours out there yet again?”

“No way, no how! We made sure that we had more personnel on site for when the procedures were done and kept them safely locked away until they were ready to be used!”

“Oh, pardon me! I did not mean to offend. Rather, it is still distraughting that we lost one to the possession of a male... during phase three.”

“There will be no discussing of that topic for the time being. Now as for you, you may go now. But do make sure to pass any relevant reports down the proper channel when they should arise.”

The mare stood up from her chair and left the room along with the other within seconds and close the door behind themselves. Once they were gone and only the single light and a chair was left in the dark room, did the voices start back up again.

“Shall we take a vote on how we shall proceed?”

“Hah! I say we go right ahead and start the next phase as soon as possible!

“It would be detrimental to hastily proceed without first fortifying our position. I propose the course of sticking to the schedule. This would also further allow us to add or subtract any obstacles that might hinder our endeavors.”

“We have one for, and one against moving the timetable up.”

“I would rather not rush. Just as beauty needs it, perfection takes time.”

“That's two in favor of waiting.”

“I pinned my hopes on this working out. However, if it should happen to go south. Then i'd like to build up my capital for any future plans. After a fair amount of my bits have been sunk into this. It doesn't hurt to have some financial stability if the worst case should come. It’s like my mom always said, don’t go counting your money bags until you got all your bits.”

“That's one for moving ahead and three for waiting.”

“Hmmm... hmm. I don't feel like voting.

“As the impartial member I will also abstain from throwing my own vote in. By majority, we shall continue with our current plans as scheduled. In the meantime, I suggest that we have our members that are stationed within the Adventurers Guild to keep an ear open for any talk of someone who is powerful enough to take out one of our officers.”

“I regretfully say that will be rather laborious. As of now. We have no members within the Canterlot branch office. Other areas have also been going dark when it comes to the information network we have in place.”

“To Tartarus with that Mare! It's all because of her outburst in Ponyville that they've started screening their employees and rooting us out! It's so infuriating! How the buck are they even finding us so quickly?!”

“There's not much we can do now. Pointless arguing will get us nowhere. If there is no further matters that need to be immediately discussed, then I propose that this meeting is concluded.” For several long seconds not one of the voices could be heard again. Seemingly to take this as a unified agreement. The light in the center of the room began to shrink in size until everything was obscured with complete blackness.

But seemingly out of nowhere. The entire room lit up. The chair from before was missing and replaced with an open area and a tastefully designed rug with pictures of story books. The interior was filled with wall to wall of shelves and countless volumes of text all neatly put away on each of them. It would have taken only a few seconds for anyone to realize that this was a regular bookstore. The blinds were drawn closed for the two large windows on either side of the stores entrance.

There was also a long counter with a register at one end. The rest of the surface was covered with random books that were either neatly stacked or spread about on their own. Sticking out from underneath one of the larger tomes, was a piece of parchment with what appeared to be titles belonging to stories and written in black Ink. However, there was a set that had a red circle outlining it near the bottom corner. Inside the red marking, there was a total of four in all.

These turned out to be, Beast of Fire. Beast of Earth. Beast of wind and Beast of lightning. But just underneath the circling. There was one more title but it had been scratched out so much that one might have thought the quill could have ripped the paper apart if it had gone any further.

*Point of view: Daring Do*
*Location: Spitfire's Apartment*
*Time: A little over an hour after both mother and daughter started preparations on late dinner*

Daring Do could be seen sitting on the couch with an extremely bored expression plastered onto her face. Said mare was currently upside down thanks to her laying across the couch. Her body was on its back so that her arm and leg were hanging over the edge as well. As for her Wing that was already draped onto the carpet and having one of its feathers being lazily played with thanks to her hand resting on the top of it.

Her eyes were drifting from one side of the room to the next as she was in a good position to look under a couple of the pieces of furniture for anything that could bring some semblance of entertainment. For the better part of the last hour, Daring Do was not allowed to enter the kitchen unless it was to get a glass of water. And even then, she was quickly ushered out by Stormy Flare. It really didn't help her self-esteem when it came to cooking when she was immediately seen as a walking kitchen disaster by the two mare's in the other room.

She then started to think the following to herself as her inner voice was sounding just as bored as her outer exterior. “Bored… I am so very bored... This is just so boring! I really don't get what the big deal is about cooking at home. We could already be eating by now if they just let me run out and grab some takeout. For crying out loud! I could at least be allowed to make some coffee. That's the one thing I do know how to make, and it won't explode halfway through.”

Daring Do started to Grumble to herself a few more times before she continued after first rolling and situating her body so that she was now laying across her stomach. “They're just doing this to impress him!” She then had this serious pout on her face as she was staring up at the ceiling while going on with these thoughts. However, it started off with a snarky tone to her inner voice.

“I could cook too if I wanted too! Just uh, didn't have the motivation, that's all. Yeah, that's right, I can cook! I'll just march right up in there and show them! For Tartarus’s sake it's in my name. I'm Daring Do, not Daring can't!” And with that, the Pegasus sat up and started to march right up to the kitchen with long strides between them. However, she did not even make it to the threshold before she paused and adopted a bewildered expression.

This quickly morphed to another that was comprised of both confusion and self-discussed as she started to think the following in panic. “Did I? was I almost? Am I getting jealous? Get a hold of yourself Daring, he's just a stallion! Okay yes, he's a tall stallion and he's a lot stronger than he looks. Sure, he might not be a Pegasus, but we all can't be perfect.” This was when her inner voice began to shift slightly to what one would think to come out of an excitable schoolgirl.

“He's not so hard on the eyes I will admit that. There's also that strong grip. I've arm wrestled both mare’s and stallions and none of them have come anywhere near that. And sure, he has that condition where he erupts into flames, I'll give him that. But that's only temporary, so that's not much of a deal breaker. Also, if it wasn't for him, I'd most likely be dead off in some foreign land.” By now. She had brought up both of her hands and started to do that weird thing where a person would poke their index fingers into one another while slightly hunching over.

This went on for a few seconds before she suddenly shot her head back up and blinked repeatedly as her face started to blanch. From there, she clutched at both sides of her head while pacing back and forth in front of the kitchen a couple of times as her thoughts began to race even faster. “Did I really just sound like a school filly again? Nooooo! Get a hold of yourself! I'm just going to contribute this to the exhaustion and being slightly malnourished. Yeah, that's right! I just need some food in my belly and I'll be just fine!”

Her thoughts were broken when she heard Spitfire calling from within the kitchen and saying that the food would be on the table in a few minutes. Without even giving it any sort of afterthought. She immediately replied to let them know that she would go and try and wake up Engineer so that he can get something to eat. It did not even take more than a few seconds before she was already at the door to the guest room and quickly swung it open.

What she saw next caused her following words to stop at the back of her throat as she was just standing there in the doorway with her eyes slowly going wide and mouth slightly opened. She was also sniffing the air between every other breath while doing this. Right there and sitting with his legs crossed on top of the bed sheets was the stallion she was looking for. He was in his pants, boots, and undershirt. But what really drew her eyes in. Was what he was holding in both hands.

From all of her travels. Daring Do has gone from one continent to the next and experience different cultures from a close perspective. So, what she caught sight of and being paired with the smell in the air. The Pegasus instantly identified that Engineer was snacking on jerky. Long pieces of dried and seasoned meat were being held in the grip of both hands and nearly devoured. As for Engineer himself. He was looking straight at Daring Do with a deer in the headlight expression as his quick chewing slowed down to a crawl.

He then swallowed everything in his mouth as he was trying to keep a pathetic attempt at an innocent smile while doing so. It was immediately followed with a nervous set of chuckling as he began to speak the following. “Aaaah... I guess there's something else I need to tell you.” As for Daring Do. All thoughts in her head came to a grinding stop as all she could do was to dumbly nod to that statement. Spitfire's voice could then be heard off in the distance and down the hall. “What's taking so long in there? If he doesn't hurry up, he's going to have cold food!”

In response. Engineers ears perked up and he bounced himself out of bed. But not before shoving the rest of the jerky into his mouth and eating it before he even got to the door. Daring Do moved out of the way to allow him to pass just as he said the following. While also sounding extremely excited.

“Eat now talk later!” By then, she had stepped into the room slightly and was staring at his back. Then she thought the following in a disbelieving tone. “I've been traveling with a meat eater this whole time?” She was so out of it that when she tried to leave the room, she found that she was somehow getting caught on something that was preventing her from crossing the threshold.

When she turned her head to see what was going on. Her worried expression only grew upon seeing the state of her now fully extended wings that were preventing her from walking through the doorway. Her cheeks quickly turned to a deep crimson as she had this pleading look right as her stomach was giving a loud growl.

She then spoke the next set of words in a pleading whisper as her lower lip was turning into a pout. “Oh, Pony feathers... Why now? And I'm so hungry too...” The next part sounded more panicked than anything else and she frantically tried to do what she could to calm her wings down. “Oh no! he's alone with Spitfire and her mother! And worst of all… They have the photos!!!”